San Gabriel Personal Injury & Immigration Law Blog

When a driver is driving, he or she has a responsibility to themselves and to other drivers on the road. This responsibility is of driving in the safest possible manner to the destination. Since being licensed to drive is a privilege and not a right, drivers must keep the community's trust in their driving ability. To ensure the safest roads possible, Government must also do their part by enacting appropriate laws and regulations that control behavior on the roads. Thus while drivers should know to drive at reasonable speeds, Government has implemented speeding laws to make sure that drivers drive at reasonable speeds.

This same idea of what a driver should know and what Government should do is coming into play on the issue of "distracted driving". Distracted driving involves any behavior that takes away from or "distracts" a driver from the primary focus of safe operation of a motor vehicle. Such distracting behavior may include speaking on a cell phone while driving, eating while driving, or playing around with a vehicle's electronic systems while driving. Already, many states, including California, have enacted distracted driving laws that penalize such behavior. While most drivers understand the danger of multitasking while driving, it is increasingly clear that Government is becoming more involved in controlling how drivers should act while on the road and enforcing these controls when broken.

Until now, most distracted driving laws and regulations have been implemented at state-level. However, this may soon change as Federal officials are now pushing for a voluntary limit on certain vehicle systems found to be distracting to drivers. This voluntary limit will encourage auto industry participation in reducing the number of available systems, such as built-in Bluetooth, GPS, and others, available to the driver while the vehicle is in motion. While not binding, these "guidelines" hope to serve as further deterrence against distracted driving, especially by younger drivers.

The Law Offices of Scott Warmuth encourages safe driving and wants to make sure that the danger of distracted driving is known to as many drivers as possible. When driving, please focus on the road ahead and not on anything else. According to the most recent study, deaths directly due to distracted driving reached 3,092 in 2010 alone. The State of California has laws in place that restrict the usage of phones while driving. However, even in jurisdictions that do not have distracted driving laws, drivers should always be aware of the road conditions and should take all steps necessary to ensure the safest operation of their motor vehicle.

If you are involved in an accident caused by a driver in violation of distracted driving laws, or if you feel that an accident you were directly involved in was caused by distracted driving, please call the Law Offices of Scott Warmuth for a free consultation. Our legal staff will help you explore your legal options and we are ready to assist you in the most appropriate way. We can be reached at (626) 380.9992 or via our website at Law Offices of Scott Warmuth. Serving our community for more than a quarter century.

In many professional relationships, especially doctor-patient and the attorney-client ones, discretion and privacy are top concerns. For both the doctor and the attorney, information relating to a specific case must always be guarded and should only be released through the appropriate channels. Without this discretion, the trust needed between service provider and private citizen cannot be attained. Without trust, it is almost impossible for the doctor to properly treat the patient or for the attorney to advise on the most appropriate legal option.

Even when the breach of trust is accidental or is the result of third-party designs, professionals must always take responsibility in safeguarding confidential information. If responsibility is not taken and the problem not addressed in a timely manner, professional reputations can be tarnished leading to a range of consequences.

St. Jude Medical Center of Fullerton and Mission Hospital of Laguna Beach are two institutions facing just such a choice. With a leak of roughly 21,000 medical records as a result of a "security glitch", both medical organizations are in damage-control mode. While the leak did not contain any items related to Social Security or personal finances, medical information, including patient history and personal profiles, was inadvertently made avaliable for public internet.

According to news sources, the leak occured over the course of a one year period and was only brought to light through the efforts of a legal counsel representing one of the patients affected. This episode shows how important it is to routinely check confidential databases and to implement procedures to secure the flow of private information across office networks. When a breach or leak does occur, the only course of action is to work quickly in minimizing the damage and to address the problem in such a manner that future occurances cannot happen.

Having served our community for more than a quarter century, the Law Offices of Scott Warmuth takes our obligations in the attorney-client relationship very seriously. We believe in trusting our client and having our client trust us. Without this trust, we cannot fulfill our service of providing the best possible legal advise across a spectrum of cases including personal injury, immigration, and elder abuse. If you have any questions regarding our services, please call us directly at (626) 380.9992. Alternatively, you may chose to complete our free online case evaluation form.

For the most part, traffic accidents are unintentional and are just unfortunate occurances that result from a society that is heavily reliant on the motor vehicle as a form of transportation. With so many cars on the road, it is a fact-of-life that must be acknowledged. People should come to terms with the reality that there is a fairly high chance of them being involved in an accident at some point during their driving career. When the accident does occur, hopefully damages are minor and life can go on with little or no adjustment. Nevertheless, some accidents will result in a significant impact on the lives of those individuals involved. In these cases, the required compensation and property repairs are most often settled upon through civil means. 

The relative structure and procedure in handling the aftermath of a traffic accident is shattered, however, when the accident is beyond the boundaries of "normality". Examples of this include accidents which result in permanent life-altering injuries or in fatalities. In these cases, the emotional strain will increase on those involved. Hit-and-Run accidents can be included in the category of accidents that exceed the boundaries of normality.

A Hit-and-Run occurs when a driver involved in an accident leaves the scene without stopping to exchange the necessary credentials, without rendering needed assistance to other drivers involved, or without calling law enforcement authorities if prudent. Individuals involved in accidents are obligated, by law, to address these items in the event of any accident. In many jurisdictions, and depending on the exact circumstance, a hit-and-run is treated as a criminal offense with serious penalities.

As distressing as a fatal accident or hit-and-run is, if combined together, the results are devastating to those involved and to the surrounding community. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is currently looking for leads in a fatal hit-and-run that claimed a 3-year old girl and seriously injuried the girl's mother. According to news releases, the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run was reported stolen and was found abandoned after the hit-and-run by law enforcement. The driver of the vehicle is actively being sought after with a $1000 reward offered to anyone with knowledge relating to the case.

At the Law Offices of Scott Warmuth, clients come to us all the time with cases involving severe vehicle accidents that often involve life-changing injuries or death. We firmly believe in serving our clients through the advocation and practice of their legal rights. Our compassion for our clients is coupled with our sense of justice. Our most successful cases are the cases in which we refuse to let our client settle for what we advise are unjustice settlements. If you have a legal question regarding a vehicle accident or any other type of personal injury, please call us for a free consultation. We can be reached at (626) 380-9992 or through our online case evaluation tool. Serving our community for more than a quarter century.

Legal immigration to the United States brings increased talent and diversity to our country. With this in mind, many U.S. citizens would agree that the U.S. is built on the labors of immigrants, both past and present. Continuing a cycle from the very beginnings of our country, today's immigrants are tomorrow's citizens. Despite this, the U.S. does have set quotas of immigrant visas it approves.

For family-based immigration the annual quota is at least 226,000 and for employment-based immigration the annual quota is at least 140,000. Out of these numbers, there is a country specific limit of 7%. This means that every year prospective immigrants from a specific country will be allocated 7% (25,620) of the annual U.S. visa quota. Beyond this, there is provision for an additional 2% (7,320) for dependents of prospective immigrants for a particular country.

To inform and notify, every month the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs publishes the Visa Bulletin that highlights the number of visas available for specific regions of the world. The Visa Bulletin shows the visa cut-off dates for specific countries/categories where the visa per-country limit is surpassed or oversubscribed. Visa petitioners who filed petitions with priority dates before a select cut-off date will be given consideration for the month during which that cut-off date was published. For example if a cut-off date is listed as "01MAY01", then visa petitions with priority dates earlier than May 1, 2001 will be considered during that month. In addition to the oversubscribed bulletins, the Visa Bulletin also publishes the diversity immigrant bulletin. This bulletin lists the quotas for areas of the world considered to be "non-traditional" sources of immigration to the U.S.

The following shows the oversubscribed family-based and employment-based bulletins, as well as, the diversity immigrant bulletins for the month of February 2012. For more details and for further information, please visit the Bureau of Consular Affairs. Note: Beyond the possible cut-off dates listed, if an entry is represented as "C" then priority is immediately available for visa petitioners.

*Family-Sponsored Key (Taken directly from Bureau of Consular Affairs' website)
F1- Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens/Spouses and Children, Unmarried Sons and Daughters f Permanent Residents
F2A- Spouses and Children
F2B- Unmarried Sons and Daughters
F3- Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens
F4- Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens

Family-Sponsored Bulletin

*Employment-Based Key (Taken directly from Bureau of Consular Affairs' website)

1st- Priority Workers
2nd- Members of Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability
3rd- Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers
4th- Certain Special Immigrants
5th- Employment Creation

Employment-Based Bulletin

Diversity Immigrant Bulletin